Patrick McCaw's message to himself: Get out of your head

SANTA CRUZ — Warriors guard Patrick McCaw sits just along the baseline at Kaiser Permanente Arena about an hour before tip-off of a game between the Santa Cruz Warriors and Texas Legends.

Looking at the scenery around him, McCaw tries not to break focus as the local kids behind him vy for a high-five before a rare appearance in the area for the second-year guard out of UNLV.

As the minutes on the pregame clock slowly become seconds before the 7 p.m. tip, McCaw walks onto the court in search of his latest goal.

Getting himself back on track.

Advertisement

The decision to make the pilgrimage down highway 17 occurred a little more than a week ago when McCaw approached Warriors coach Steve Kerr just after breakfast at the team’s hotel in Denver ahead of a 115-108 loss to the Nuggets hours later. According to McCaw, the plan for him to play Friday and Sunday’s game with the G-League team, with an extended stay is not out of the question.

Prior to the self-demotion, McCaw was experiencing the roughest stretch of his young career. Since Jan 1. he has averaged just 2.9 points per game on 39 percent shooting, failing to hit a 3-pointer in the calendar year.

The reason behind McCaw’s brief odyssey to the sleepy beach town seemed improbable seven months ago. Sitting on a makeshift stage along the shores of Lake Merritt in Oakland for the Warriors’ 2017 championship parade, McCaw expressed a calm excitement.

At 21, McCaw was a consistent contributor on a team featuring all-stars Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. Despite the star power, McCaw flourished in the playoffs, averaging 4.1 points per game, and grabbing 2.1 rebounds in 12 minutes, culminating in an 18 point outburst in game 2 of the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs.

McCaw’s playoff performance not only rewarded the trust the Warriors’ front office displayed when they spent $2.5 million for his rights in the 2016 NBA Draft, but the forward’s stock on the court, combined with the Warriors’ tax bill, brought questions on whether they could afford to keep him beyond 2018.

Standing more than 70 feet from McCaw at the parade, Warriors forward Andre Iguodala stoked the fire of McCaw’s impending restricted free agency.

“Patrick McCaw is next,” Iguodala said to the crowd more than 1.5 million people. “He’s second round, so it’s tough, somebody’s going to try to steal him next year, but he’s going to be a great player for a long time.”

Iguodala’s declaration affected McCaw’s psyche in more ways than one.

Shortly after the parade, he left the Bay Area for Las Vegas, moving into his girlfriend’s pad, making the drive each day to UNLV’s Mendenhall Center to train. While the vices of Sin City sat less than a mile away, McCaw honed his craft, working through endless amounts of ball-handling skills, floaters, jump shots, pick-and-roll drills, while working with a heavy ball to improve his core strength.

“I was in the gym every day,” McCaw said. “Just to have that facility have that access every day it made it that much easier.”

The fruits of his labor began to manifest in the 2017 NBA Summer League. In five games, he averaged 20 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.6 assists, striving toward the promise the Warriors sought in him.

However, the summer league performance, combined with Iguodala’s comments, only further drove McCaw’s expectations for himself.

By his own admission, McCaw wants to be the greatest basketball player of all time. After practices in Oakland, McCaw makes the 35-mile trip to Burlingame for hour-and-a-half sessions with trainer Patrick Turner twice a week, hoping to get an edge.

“When I step on the floor I wanna have that same energy that Steph [Curry] gets, that [Kevin Durant] gets, that Lebron [James] gets, all those guys,” McCaw said. “All those guys, that energy that they get right now, that’s the energy that I wanna achieve.”

With the work he’s put in, McCaw admits his quest for greatness has caused him to be blind to the smaller victories.

“I think it’s just overthinking,” McCaw admitted. “So even if it’s a single, I don’t see it as a single. I wanna hit that home run. I’m not taking a single, I’m not taking a double because I’m overthinking it.”

“I’m in my own head right now because when you have someone that really wants to be the best that can be hard to fight,” McCaw continued. “That’s what I’m thinking about nine times out of 10 when I’m on the floor. I can’t get beat because nobody gets out of my shadow — that just how I feel.”

“I’m trying to hit that home run because I know I can do it. But then I overthink like, should I do it?”

The approach developed in part because of McCaw’s father, Jeffery. As a youth, McCaw would follow his father to practices at McCluer South-Berkeley High School, where Jeff was an assistant coach. Through his childhood, Jeffery would encourage his son to see the game through the eyes of a coach and make the right play instead of the one that goes on a highlight reel.

The philosophy would help McCaw see the game two or three plays ahead, but also put him in a position to overanalyze situations on the court.

“I’ve been like that and it always works for me,” he said. “It has never been detrimental and now it seems like it is.”

This season, with the signing of Nick Young, McCaw has battled for minutes at backup shooting guard.

After a Nov. 2, 2017, win over the San Antonio Spurs, Kerr proclaimed McCaw the firm backup shooting guard. When Curry has sidelined 11 games with a sprained ankle, the hope was that McCaw would take the next step in his progression. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, as he averaged just 4.6 points, 2.1 rebounds on 41 percent shooting during the stretch, struggling to find the balance of calling his own number and passing to the team’s superstars.

“I feel it was a lot different,” McCaw said. “It’s hard to just go out there and play with those guys. Still to this day I get jitters playing with Steph and KD. I don’t wanna mess up. If I make sure I give them the ball I’ll be good, so like now I’m overthinking that, with that one shot, there’s KD over there playing in the corner.”

With the bad stretch, McCaw’s minutes began to drop yet again in favor of Young.

But he insists he’s not worried about his impending restricted free agency, or anything presently out of his control.

“I can’t even think about it because I don’t really know the process,” McCaw said. “This is where I am and this is where I wanna be right now and I can’t ask for anything better.”

Back in Santa Cruz, McCaw is off to a rough start. While his activity level his high, his shot is off as he clanks his way to a 1-of-5 start through the first quarter.

When he’s subbed back in during the second quarter, something seems to click. Instead of being passive, McCaw begins to work his way into the paint, making eight of his next 15 shots to finish with 22 points, eight rebounds, and three assists in a 105-99 loss.

The performance serves as the first bright spot for McCaw in some time. But it also perhaps provided yet another lesson for the second-year guard.